Sam Altman Believes Traditional Education Will Change In 18 Years Due To AI: "I'm Worried About..."

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes his son won't attend college due to the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). While speaking in a podcast recently, Mr Altman, who is one of the leading figures of the AI boom, said he thinks traditional education will see a significant change in the next 18 years, with AI becoming an integral part of learning. He also admitted that children will be fine, and he is worried about the parents.

The entrepreneur believes AI will always be smarter than humans, making traditional educational goals centred on intellectual competition and gaining knowledge less relevant.

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While speaking on the This Past Weekend podcast with comedian Theo Von, Altman said, "In that world, education is going to feel very different."

"I already think college is, like, maybe not working great for most people, but I think if you fast-forward 18 years, it's going to look like a very, very different thing."

On being asked whether his child will attend college or university, the billionaire said, "Probably not."

"I actually think the kids will be fine; I'm worried about the parents," he said during the podcast. "If you look at the history of the world, when there's a new technology, people who grow up with it are always fluent. They always figure out what to do. They always learn new kinds of jobs. But if you are like a 50-year-old and you have to kind of learn how to do things in a very different way, that doesn't always work."

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The CEO also talked about the impact of technology on the mental health of the younger generations and also compared AI adoption to the introduction of calculators, which transformed mathematical education.

"I'm sure the same thing happened with the calculator before, and now this is just a new tool that exists in the tool chain," he said.

Altman suggested that future education should emphasise uniquely human skills like developing innovative thinking and problem-solving abilities, understanding and managing emotions, making informed decisions based on moral principles, and effectively working alongside AI systems.

"In the same way, people from the time of the Industrial Revolution might have viewed modern humans as leading a relatively easy existence, looking forward 100 years from now, we may well think the same thing," he said.